Letterkenny Depot employees earn 9th Shingo for 'city in a box' work

CHAMBERSBURG -- Letterkenny Army Depot employees were honored for their work on the "home away from home" for deployed soldiers.

Depot employees collected their ninth Shingo Prize today.

About 60 employees work on building and repairing "city in a box" modules, which provide housing, dining and sanitary facilities for troops.

"These force provider modules that you make really improve the quality of life for our men and women who are in harm's way," said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg. "As I travel around - I've been to Afghanistan and Iraq over the years - I always hear the praises from our warfighters of the men and women at Letterkenny."

A single module takes five to six days to set up before it's fully operational. One module can provide all the hygiene, billeting, laundry and feeding facilities for as many as 600 troops.

"As military spending continues to reduce and as our mission support to the soldiers continues to be strong, it is imperative that we continue to beg the question: How can we do it better, how can we do it faster, and how can we do it for less?" said Letterkenny Commander Col. Victor Hagan.

Hagan said the Letterkenny work force was ready to hit the ground running in 2005 when the depot teamed up with the Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, Natick, Mass., to repair the equipment and bring it back to its original state.

Success with that program led to an opportunity to begin building new units. Both programs are still active at the depot.

"When the Department of the Army wanted additional force provider modules added to the war reserve, Natick gave the opportunity to Letterkenny, and we proved ourselves both to the customer and the warfighter," Hagan said.

The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence is considered the Nobel Prize for manufacturing.